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No / There has been a recent rise in optimism about Africa's prospects: increased economic growth; renewed regional and national political commitments to good governance; and fewer conflicts. Yet, given current trends and with less than eight years until 2015, Africa is likely to fail to meet every single one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Home to almost one-third of the world's poor, Africa's challenges remain as daunting as ever. Despite highly publicized increased growth in some economies, the combined economies of Africa have, on average, actually shrunk and are far from meeting the required 7 per cent growth needed to tackle extreme poverty. A similar picture emerges from the analysis of Africa's performance on the other MDGs. In a world where security and development are inextricably connected in complex and multifaceted ways, Africans are, as a result, among the most insecure. By reviewing a select number of political, security and socio-economic indicators for the continent, this analysis evaluates the reasons underlying Africa's continuing predicament. It identifies four critical issues: ensuring peace and security; fostering good governance; fighting HIV/ AIDS; and managing the debt crisis. In assessing these developmental security challenges, the article recalls that the MDGs are more than time bound, quantified targets for poverty alleviation¿they also represent a commitment by all members of the international community, underwritten by principles of co-responsibility and partnership, to an enlarged notion of development based on the recognition that human development is key to sustaining social and economic progress. In recent years, and often following failures, especially in Africa, to protect civilian populations from the violence and predation of civil wars, a series of high-level commissions and expert groups have conducted strategic reviews of the UN system and its function in global politics. The debate has also developed at the theoretical level involving both a recon-ceptualization of security, from state centred norms to what is referred to as the globalization of security around the human security norm. There has also been a reconceptualization of peacekeeping, where the peacekeeping force has enough robustness to use force not only to protect populations under the emergent responsibility to protect norm, but also enough conflict resolution capacity to facilitate operations across the conflict¿development¿peacebuilding continuum. This article opens up a discussion of how these ideas might be relevant to security regime building and conflict resolution in African contexts, and suggests how initiatives in Africa might begin to make a contribution to the theory and practice of cosmopolitan peacekeeping.

Yes / The current emphasis in the microfinance industry is a shift from donor-funded to commercially sustainable operations. This article evaluates the impact of access to microloans from the Khushhali Bank - Pakistan's first and largest microfinance bank which operates on commercial principles. Using primary data from a detailed household survey of nearly 3000 borrower and non-borrower households, a difference in difference approach is used to test for the impact of access to loans. Once the results are disaggregated between rural and urban areas there is a positive impact in rural areas on food expenditure and on some social indicators.

World leaders, policy makers, and scholars are engaged in efforts to improve human development (HD), which, for the United Nations (UN) Development Program, is about allowing people choices in their lives and providing tools with which to make those choices. Success in increasing human development will impact the daily lives of a nation's citizens as well as contribute to success in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): eight shared UN goals to improve living conditions of people around the world. The information currently available to those seeking to enhance human development measures focuses on a macro-level approach that advocates first advancing national economic development. Recent research on meeting the MDGs focuses on micro-level individual or community activities. Entrepreneurial and microfinance activity are two such micro-level activities that have been associated in research with advances in national economic development. Microfinance, particularly microcredit, activities have been associated in research with advances in some human development measures. Similar research concerning how entrepreneurial activity may relate directly to human development is lacking. This research project was designed to examine the relationships of these individual activities with human development independent of economic development. Two questions guided this study: (a) Does individual activity (either entrepreneurial or microfinance) have a direct effect on human development, separate from any effect through economic development and (b) If so, do certain types of individual activity (either entrepreneurial or microfinance) have a stronger relationship with some human development measures more than others? Due to data challenges, the scope of this research was restricted to a retrospective study examining measures of entrepreneurial activity with measures of human development. A similar exploration involving microfinance activity is planned for the future. A literature search and content analysis were conducted to determine definitions and measures. Data on nine measures were collected from 44 nations. Analyses indicated that one measure of entrepreneurial activity (own account workers-individuals owning or operating an enterprise, but hiring no employees) does have a statistically significant relationship with one measure of human development (literacy). Guidelines are also offered from lessons learned in navigating the disparate maze of conceptual and measurement issues when researching this territory. With several years remaining in the UN Millennium Development Challenge and the UN Decade of Literacy, this research may have implications for policy makers and world leaders as they seek ways to improve both economic and human development simultaneously. / Ph. D.

The Barrage informal settlement (BIS) is a peri-urban community of about 300 people resident on private land close to the banks of the Vaal River in Gauteng South Africa. The study focuses on the living and sanitation conditions in which people find themselves. Measured against the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) BIS and its residents clearly are far from meeting MDG 7 target 7 C. For the purposes of this study the researcher investigated ecological sanitation (EcoSan) as an alternative solution for the current local sanitation conundrum. Residents either use the veld or a dysfunctional pit system. The data used for the project was generated both in a qualitative and quantitative mode. Semi-structured interviews were randomly conducted. Participants were requested and subsequently assisted in completing a questionnaire. There were also several focus group discussions for gathering relevant data. The researcher tried to form an impression of the perceptions of community members in terms on the type of sanitation system they wished to use. Community members actively engaged in strategies aimed to find out how they perceive sanitation, potable water supply and matters of hygiene. The findings revealed dissatisfaction regarding to current conditions in BIS. Residents are uncertain because the land on which they reside on does not belong to them. This, in turn, creates uncertainty and feelings of insecurity, about the relevance of a potential water-based sanitation system. At the same time members of the community indicated they had no interest in a dry toilet system. Neither are they keen on the use of community ablution blocks (CABs) as alternative. Residents showed no willingness and are also not prepared to pay for sanitation because they cannot afford it. The dilemma is that residents are at the mercy of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) and the private owners of the land on which they reside. Where do we find the solution to all of the issues? Participatory deliberation strategies were used to determine which system of sanitation local residents preferred. They clearly came out in favour of the Water Bank concept as a feasible sanitation system option. However, as a result of the unfulfilled promises of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) and landowners the community remains in a state of uncertainty about the permanence of the BIS.

The Barrage informal settlement (BIS) is a peri-urban community of about 300 people resident on private land close to the banks of the Vaal River in Gauteng South Africa. The study focuses on the living and sanitation conditions in which people find themselves. Measured against the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) BIS and its residents clearly are far from meeting MDG 7 target 7 C. For the purposes of this study the researcher investigated ecological sanitation (EcoSan) as an alternative solution for the current local sanitation conundrum. Residents either use the veld or a dysfunctional pit system. The data used for the project was generated both in a qualitative and quantitative mode. Semi-structured interviews were randomly conducted. Participants were requested and subsequently assisted in completing a questionnaire. There were also several focus group discussions for gathering relevant data. The researcher tried to form an impression of the perceptions of community members in terms on the type of sanitation system they wished to use. Community members actively engaged in strategies aimed to find out how they perceive sanitation, potable water supply and matters of hygiene. The findings revealed dissatisfaction regarding to current conditions in BIS. Residents are uncertain because the land on which they reside on does not belong to them. This, in turn, creates uncertainty and feelings of insecurity, about the relevance of a potential water-based sanitation system. At the same time members of the community indicated they had no interest in a dry toilet system. Neither are they keen on the use of community ablution blocks (CABs) as alternative. Residents showed no willingness and are also not prepared to pay for sanitation because they cannot afford it. The dilemma is that residents are at the mercy of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) and the private owners of the land on which they reside. Where do we find the solution to all of the issues? Participatory deliberation strategies were used to determine which system of sanitation local residents preferred. They clearly came out in favour of the Water Bank concept as a feasible sanitation system option. However, as a result of the unfulfilled promises of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) and landowners the community remains in a state of uncertainty about the permanence of the BIS.

This academic report is the written analysis of my experience as a production intern at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. My internship specifically involved production and this report discusses production management across the performing arts disciplines, as experienced during my 480 hour internship experience. I describe the organizational history of the Kennedy Center and the internship process. I create a SWOT analysis pertaining to factors affecting the Production Department, discuss production management best practices, and make recommendations for the Center’s improvement.

A pesquisa examina o projeto político do desenvolvimento humano em suas formas de implementação, no Brasil. As propostas que emanam do Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento (PNUD), sobretudo através dos Relatórios do Desenvolvimento Humano (RDH), ganham características particulares no ambiente sociopolítico nacional. O projeto oriundo do órgão internacional se concretiza, principalmente, através dos esforços de implementação dos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento do Milênio (ODM). O objeto da pesquisa é constituído, assim, pelas representações discursivas dos diversos agentes políticos e econômicos direcionados ao cumprimento dos objetivos e metas denominados ODM. Uma das preocupações centrais da pesquisa diz respeito aos métodos e às instituições disciplinadoras da ação individual e coletiva dos diferentes sujeitos sociais e políticos atuantes em favor dos Objetivos do Milênio. Analisa-se as bases teóricas e metodológicas que dão suporte ao projeto político e examina-se as práticas organizacionais e as representações sob o prisma de uma sociologia da mudança social que interroga, centralmente, as relações de poder e dominação. / The research examines the human development political project in its forms of implementation, in Brazil. Proposals emanating from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), particularly through the Human Development Reports (HRD), acquire particular characteristics in the national socio-political environment. The project originated from the international organization is realized mainly through the efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The research object is constituted, therefore, by the discursive representations of the diverse political and economic actors directed to the fulfillment of the objectives and goals denominated MDG. One of the central concerns of the research refers to the disciplinary methods and institutions for the individual and collective action of the different social and political actors working for the Millennium Development Goals. It analyzes the theoretical and methodological bases that support the political project and examines the organizacional practices and representations under the prism of a sociology of social change that interrogates, centrally, the relations of power and domination.